equ delivers a dream renovation to the online home of WA real estate, REIWA

Independent digital agency, equ (formerly Equilibrium), is proud to have designed the new reiwa.com, WA’s leading property marketplace.

The project was a culmination of nearly two years of close collaboration between the agency and REIWA (Real Estate Institute of Western Australia), and was one of the largest and most technically complex website projects undertaken in equ’s 28 year history.

According to equ Managing Director, Warren Gibbs (pictured below), the project, built on the Sitefinity platform, with 71 points of data integration, will provide a number of major benefits to internal and external stakeholders.

“REIWA is WA’s peak body for the real estate industry, providing training and accreditation to residential, commercial and rural agents, property managers and strata managers, as well as access to in-depth market intelligence and data through their Research Department.

“As a dedicated listings portal operated by REIWA, www.reiwa.com is an invaluable research tool for property hunters, but also delivers significant value to REIWA members by driving sales and rental leads directly to them. It also drives revenue for the Institute through premium listings and advertising, which is reinvested back into member services,” he said.

The decision to undertake a complete redevelopment of the site allows REIWA to offer unique features that will compel Western Australian audiences to choose the site over the national competition in a market dominated by national behemoths.

In order to offer users more intuitive, better ways to research and find property, REIWA approached equ to develop a robust, scalable and future-proof platform that would provide a differentiated offer with a focus on local data for a Western Australian audience.

According to Digital Director, Stephen Dodge, equ adopted a co-design approach with REIWA and its diverse range of end-users.

Dodge said: “We comprehensively mapped out multiple user journeys for first homebuyers, renters, sellers and investors. We also developed features such as suburb, property and agent comparison tools, interactive maps and personalisation to help users throughout all stages of their property journey.

“This intensive research has uncovered many insights allowing us to create a site that accommodates a wide user base and offers deep and intuitive property search functionality.

“Importantly, the site includes unrivalled Western Australia property data, enabling users to make purchase and investment decisions with confidence.”

REIWA’s CEO, Cath Hart, said the partnership between the two organisations working across agile teams, had delivered great outcomes.

Hart added: “We are super excited to relaunch reiwa.com – which was WA’s first proptech pioneer, established in 1995 as realnet.com and later rebranded. The new site reasserts our position as the smarter choice for property search in WA. equ provided talented resources covering all aspects of the website development, all of whom were heavily invested in our project to ensure its success.

“They have a professional and flexible approach, and worked in partnership with REIWA to resolve complex issues and provide valuable guidance and advice throughout the project.

“We will continue to engage with equ in future stages to leverage their digital expertise and further build our partnership.”